The World IP Day (WIPD) was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 19 years ago on April 26, 1970. This was to celebrate the day on which the WIPO Convention entered into force.
On it’s anniversary in 2019, I was asked to share my thoughts on how could one up their innovation quotient. Here’s my flavorful recipe.
Curiosity
To me, this is the essential ingredient – a curious person who is open to know more about the universe around will hardly be short of ideas. The ability to keep one’s eyes, ears, nose and mind receptive to information is envy worthy. More often than not, we are products of our learning bias and are prone to quick judgments on what is correct and what is not based on our perspective. The ability to unlearn this bias and be genuinely curious about the various ways of experiencing things e.g. baking a cake, telling a story, drawing a picture, making a photo, writing a poem, investing money, driving a car, listening to music, appreciating a movie, opens us up to a world of possibilities and these are the very possibilities that then become our innovation in various forms.
Change
Nido R. Qubein said, Change brings Opportunity. Rather than be confounded by fear of change, embracing it helps one to discover new ways of doing things.
Around 2010-2011, Software Defined Networking (SDN) broke through as a new paradigm in managing networks. Typically, network functions were achieved by running distributed network protocols (e.g. Spanning Tree Protocol, Open Shortest Path First) that ran on the various network nodes that shared network state among themselves to achieve the set objectives (e.g. forward a packet, drop a packet, apply a policy, provide quality of service). SDN advocated the use of a controller that would have the consolidated state of the network, to achieve the same objectives.
I saw this as an opportunity to achieve the same network objectives in a new paradigm. In embracing this change, I partnered with several people who were experts in a specific network protocol or a network function and started thinking together, a way of achieving the same via SDN. We were able to file several patents as a consequence.
Riding the Wave
Though I have never done surfing, I love how the surfer looks for the right wave and catches it. Once caught, the wave does the rest, carrying the surfer with it’s velocity and momentum.
Right now, the wave that is sweeping across industries is the wave of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). For the past few years, my curiosity has led me to delve into this realm, explore novel use cases and apply AI and ML principles to a familiar domain like Networking. This has resulted in one more rich haul of patents in quick time. Being aware of a powerful trend and riding that does improve one’s potential for reaping rewards for the work done.
Partner
I may have all the flavors – the curiosity, be welcoming of change and even know how to ride the wave but sometimes life throws a curve ball that may land one into indifference and listlessness. What one needs then is a partner who can kick one’s butt into action. A partner’s helping hand, some words of encouragement, a trustworthy shoulder to lean on and a different perspective works wonders to get one up and running. In the past many years, I have partnered with so many different people, gaining a lot from them and have valued their guidance and perspective at the right times.
To finish, here is my flavorful recipe for innovation –
Be Curious, Embrace Change, Ride the Wave and Partner